This is the kind of place I would image just about every Gear Live reader would love to spend an extended vacation. It’s the Emerates Palace, where some staff get around on Segway units, and their private beach is Internet ready - and check out the amenity list:

The most advanced hotel multimedia system, including touch screen control panel, will allow guests full control of all room appliances such as lights, air-conditioning and in-room entertainment

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This week in Playlist we have a new release from one of America’s greatest musical treasures, Bruce Springsteen. Along with the Boss, we have a disc from Martha Wainwright, a member of the reigning singer/songwriter royal family.

With just under a month to go until E3, expect the gaming news to start flowing fast and hard. Last year Square Enix put on a great show, had an incredible booth, and really just did an all out great job. It looks like they are aiming to pull out all the stops yet again. This year they will be showing Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (again), Front Mission Online, Romancing SaGa, Radiata Stories, Kingdom Hearts II, and Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, and Final Fantasy XII. We’re excited to see how this turns out and so is Ichiro Otobe, President of Square Enix:

“This year’s line-up will showcase huge titles from all of our major franchises, making this a particularly unique E3 for us. In addition to titles from our familiar franchises such as Dragon Quest VIII and Kingdom Hearts II, we will have playable demos of many other exciting, new games that will soon be as recognizable on consoles, mobile phones, online and DVD. Compilation of Final Fantasy VII will be a great example of the actual delivery of polymorphic content, our new content deployment model based on the creation of original concepts with interactivity on multiple platforms in mind from the start.”

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We figured the new PowerMac’s would be dropping this week, and Amazon all but confirmed it when they put up a listing for the new machine before Apple was able to officially make the announcement. The new PowerMac will house dual 2.7 GHz processors, 512MB of DDR SDRAM, a 250 GB hard drive, 16x Dual-Layer SuperDrive, and the Tiger OS - all for just $3,000.

The original creators of Netscape have taken another step in the world of the interweb. Mike Homer and Mark Andreessen have launched the Open Media Network which allows public broadcasters, video bloggers, podcasters, and others to make their work public. This new service takes the publishers files, places them into their P2P, and organizes them into an organized guide kind of like an on screen channel guide for TV. From there you can subscribe to the publishers content you like or just simply view things on a click by click basis.

“We’re trying to create a free consumer service that would allow the viewing of public service content on the Internet. Right now there is no easy way for consumers to (publish and view) these things. It has not been a consumer phenomenon, it’s been an early adopter phenomenon,” says Mike Homer.

This week’s list is all bloodied up thanks to the vampire hunter Blade. The third part in the Blade series, this one is full of action coupled with the occasional witty lines. If you were a fan of the previous two or a fan of the comic book, then this one should definitely be on your list for this week. If Blade: Trinity is too bloody for your taste, then check out Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. This one is sure to entertain the whole family with a story filled with fantasy and hilarious scenes. Whatever your taste may be, this week there’s something for everyone.

The URL is unlisted, but this is the Dashboard widget download site. Not everything is complete, as clicking on filenames for descriptions may lead to a blank page. Download links should be mostly functional. Oh, wait, you shouldn’t even have Tiger running on your system yet. Check back in a few days.

Our favorite first person shooter for the Xbox gets an update on Tuesday via Xbox Live. There are now four multiplayer maps available for download via the Content Download section of Xbox Live. These four maps are in two groups. The first one, “Bonus Map Pack”, includes Containment and Warlock maps – this one is a free download. The other pack is named “Killtacular Pack”, includes Turf and Sanctuary maps – this one is $5.99. The Killtacular Pack will set you back a couple of bucks now, but if you wait until June 28th you will be able to download those two packs free of charge. Be sure to check them out, download them and stain them with your opponents’ body parts. See ya’ll online!

SmartGUARD’s WallFly software aims to do for PC gaming what the V-chip has done for TV, which seems to be not much at all. Basically, the software is installed on a PC, and a parent can create profiles for each member of the family that might want to play a PC game. The parent can then configure which options are and are not allowed (blood and gore, for example), what hours children are allowed to play the games, and - most importantly - what ratings they may or may not play. My thing is, I know so many people that can get around so many different kinds of software that is supposed to restrict them from doing something. I haven’t tried WallFly out yet, but it is hard for me to believe that it will be any different.

Microsoft is ready to take Windows further into the digital lifestyle and they want you to do the work for them. They have announced a PC Design competition and if you are the creative type, you could walk away with $125,000.

The Challenge
Rethink the Windows-based PC experience today and the role it plays in people’s lives. Envision how the digital lifestyle—from personal productivity at work or home, to entertainment, mobility, lifestyle and form—all play a part in development. Think big, be bold, and inspiring, but pay attention to sustainable technologies, and ecological and environmental innovation.